How can Tales of Phantasia flow so well with one fighter and three spellcasters?

Alright, I know that Chester rejoins late in the game and essentially acts as a second physical fighter, but you do spend a lot of the game stuck with Cless and the three wizards.
I have actually always been fascinated by how well this works; when I played the game for the first time I was almost 100% sure that Arche would be a physical fighter, so we got the standard RPG formation of two fighters, one attack mage and one healer - but she turned out to not only be another magician, but even the dedicated black magic user!

I have tried similar formations in other RPG:s, and it never flows even close as well there - I frequently feel that the battles become extremely tedious and drawn-out, and that I constantly need to restore MP, and defensively the party just seems too weak.
But in Tales of Phantasia it seems to work totally fine for some reason.

what's the abstract difference between attack spellcasters and physical fighters? none really, they both cause damage and partly play support. one has a mp number that may run to 0, but so do special attacks of physical fighters. i never found it so weird

but tales of phantasia is a cool ass game

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Originally Posted by krissy

what's the abstract difference between attack spellcasters and physical fighters? none really, they both cause damage and partly play support. one has a mp number that may run to 0, but so do special attacks of physical fighters. i never found it so weird

but tales of phantasia is a cool ass game

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Well, the difference is that Cless is still able to deal damage quite nicely even when his TP has run out, whereas the spellcasters are much more dependent on TP in order to be useful.
So I was almost expecting constant problems with keeping their TP up in dungeons etc.
But then again, I guess the fact that you always gain back some TP at the end of the battles is an important advantage, and then there is of course that ever-useful Fairy Ring accessory which cuts all TP consumption by half.

It was still a somewhat unusual party though, normally a party of four characters will include at least two fighters, and rarely as much as three spellcasters.
This does happen at one point in FF9 during the Iifa Tree part though, but not for that long.

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Originally Posted by *Laurelindo*

Well, the difference is that Cless is still able to deal damage quite nicely even when his TP has run out, whereas the spellcasters are much more dependent on TP in order to be useful.

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Yeah. That's what I've experienced.

That, and Cless being at the front helps lure physical attacks to him, leaving the magic casters time to cast magic without being interrupted. I think Cless being the one manually controlled also helps out somehow.

I suppose when you really think about it, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes the 1 fighter 3 mages system work so well in ToP, since in theory it's just too unbalanced in RPGs.

I agree with Evastio, I think it's because enemies primarily go after you (Cress/Cless).

I also think the ability to parry/reduce damage helps reduce Mint's need to heal you, which means she can focus on the other party members who need healing more.

I would find that party too frustrating to deal with in a game today. I am not a fan of games where spells stop the action.

I am usually partial to spellcasters. I like that the game sticks you with this party for a fair amount of time to allow you to learn how to fend off monsters by yourself with only support type characters helping you from the back.